Vratnik Window

Vratnik is the section of the old town of Sarajevo that sits up on the hill guarding the river and the valley pass to the east toward Pale. In the olden olden days, it was a fortified and walled section of the city. Some of those fortifications remain and some such as the White Bastion (Bijela Tabija) have recently been restored.

It is one of my favorite places to walk with visitors, and today was no different. We walked up from Pigeon Square past the Šehidsko Mezarje Kovači (Martyr's Memorial Cemetery Kovači) to the Žuta Tabija. Then we continued up through Vratnik on up to the Bijela Tabija for the view. As we walked back through Vratnik and just before passing Kula Širokac (Širokac Tower) I took this photo.

Window - Vratnik, Sarajevo

The Wall

I believe this is post #300. In any case, this is a photo of a rock wall I ran across today during my effort to repopulate AdobeBridge (after reviving my computer last week) with the keywords I've applied to all my photos the past 3 years or so, It is about here, March of 2008 that Bridge keeps choking on loading/saving the keyword lists and I keep banging my head against a wall.

Wall - Zámek Žleby, Czech Republic

Jeff is...

that little greeting on Facebook always gets me thinking. One thing that comes to mind it that this Jeff character does an awful lot of stuff throughout the day. Another thing is, I wonder if anyone really cares. Today went something like this:

Jeff is making coffee
Jeff is walking the dogs
Jeff is thinking the weather stinks
Jeff is drinking coffee (this continues until the pot is gone in about 6 "Jeff is's")
Jeff is copying backup files over from his 1TB NAS to the reformatted hard drive
Jeff is making/eating homemade banana, blueberry, oatmeal, buckwheat pancakes made with kefir vice buttermilk
Jeff is listening to the news/Bulls and Bears/NPR etc (off and on for a few hours)
Jeff is reading the news on the internet
Jeff is researching RAM for his computer
Jeff is wondering if anyone would have 168pin 512MB PC-133 DIMM sticks they no longer want/need
Jeff is researching broadband internet options for the house in Milford (executive summary - they suck and the two providers are incredibly overpriced)
Jeff is wondering if anyone needs 256MB DDR RAM for laptops (maybe to trade) or HP Pavilion zd5000 laptop parts
Jeff is cutting his hair
Jeff is taking a shower
Jeff is scrubbing the shower floor
Jeff is thinking Geraldo is an idiot...an obnoxious idiot
Jeff is chatting with Elesa
Jeff is walking the dogs
Jeff is researching craiglist and freecycle (in conjunction with thoughts on old computer parts)
Jeff is eating some indian chicken w/rice he made last night (a spicy version similar to chicken tikka masala)
Jeff is checking to make sure his USB external backup still works, how full it is, and what is on it
Jeff is now a member of the freecycle yahoo group for CinciEast http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CinciEast
Jeff is changing a couple lightbulbs
Jeff is making Thai Coconut Curry Chicken and brown rice
Jeff is pondering juicing the mandarins or whatever they are, because neither he or Shelby like the seeds
Jeff is fiddling around on Facebook, still trying to understand the logic of the layout
Jeff is adding this blog to his "notes" on Facebook
Jeff is copying more backup files from the NAS
Jeff is an idiot and hit "Publish" instead of "Preview"...but he is not obnoxious
Jeff is getting tired of thinking what Jeff did all day
Jeff may have his photoshop and photos all working by tomorrow
Jeff is saying goodbye for now
Jeff is wondering if this should be labeled "rant" or "humor"

White on Blue

One of the photos I referenced in my last post...

Sycamore BarkMilford, Ohio. - December 2008

Blue and ...

white sort of. This photo is also from our afternoon on the mall. I'm not sure what type of tree it is.

I have a number of photos from the Milford area of sycamore trees that I will be going through soon. Some of the photos are more in keeping with the theme of earlier blog entries covering the seasons in basically two colors and one may make the cut to fill the "Spring" slot. Click the following to see Fall Winter Summer


Tree Bark and Blue SkyWashington D.C. - January 2009

Petrified Wood

Carl, his friend and I, spent an afternoon walking around Washington D.C. last week. Frantic preparations were underway for the inauguration. Most importantly, the port-o-potties...hundreds of which were being loaded off trucks and lined up along the reflecting pool. It was a clear, sunny but cold day. We spent some time in the Air & Space Museum and the National Gallery of Art, walked up to the Lincoln Memorial (stopping by to peek at the White House on the way and ponder whether the Obama kids would get to play hide and seek outside on the grounds). Also stopped by the Korean War Veterans Memorial, which is my personal favorite among the war memorials.

While walking along. I took this photo of the petrified wood on display near the entrance to the Museum of Natural History.


Petrified Wood Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural HistoryWashington D.C.

Above the Smog

I figure I'll work my way backwards through the photos from the holidays...

I took this photo a few minutes after an aborted landing Saturday in Sarajevo. We ended up landing in Zagreb and getting home a mere 9 hours later after a bus ride and all the fun that entails. The flight was diverted due to weather (fog) which in fact is not fog at all but pure pollution...it is so pure they should bottle and sell it. The air quality is always really bad this time of year due to burning low quality coal, wood and whatever else will provide heat, With temperatures in the teens (Fahrenheit), the past few weeks have been greatly aggravated by the Russian's shutting off the natural gas pipelines to Europe (and in particular Bosnia, which has no domestic production nor any storage facilities or reserves). With no gas for heat, that many more homes fired up the old coal stove...and what remains of the air is just lovely to breathe. The sun has truly been just a bright spot in the night time the past few days.

Above the Smog - SarajevoJanuary 2009

It is Cold

It is cold here...mid teens (in Fahrenheit) so the first photo I'm posting from vacation is a shot of Dianne and Andy's fireplace (which was very toasty). Since it is now officially winter, a version of this is now my new background, replacing a fall shot of Vintgar Gorge.

Toasty Fire

Coming Soon...

More photos...been on "vacation" for a couple weeks, with one week to go. I think I'll have a few good photos when I get back to home base.